HRCP blasts handing over Balochistan to FC

Lahore, September 9: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has expressed serious alarm at the decision to give police powers in Balochistan to the Frontier Corps (FC) and blasted the decision as a “retrogressive step” and “suicidal madness”.

A statement issued by the Commission on Thursday said: “The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan disagrees with the decision in the strongest possible terms. This is a retrogressive step and reliance on the rule of Danda in the present age is nothing short of suicidal madness.

The situation in Balochistan is certainly extremely grim but it has been made so by a consistent failure to address the grievances of the people in an imaginative, rational and democratic manner, and pinning instead all hopes on the effectiveness of an admittedly discredited administration. The FC does not have a good reputation in Balochistan and even those who do not sympathise with the radical nationalists will not like to be thrown at the mercy of an organisation which has been responsible for alienating a large number of people in the first instance. It is frighteningly disturbing that the state can not come up with any response other than a reversion to coercive force to settle quintessentially political matters.

HRCP calls upon saner elements in the government and outside to ensure that fuel is not added to the fire in Balochistan and this decision is reversed immediately and political initiatives taken to address the situation.

The ban announced on militant outfits is meaningless because if their members are conducting any illegal activity they are liable to be proceeded against under the law irrespective of a ban. The government should have known from its failure to control extremist militant organizations through imposition of repeated bans that such tactics are of little avail.”